On July 4th, 2006, I embarked on a quest to become the pre-eminent American portrait painter of the 21st century. This blog chronicles that journey. With apologies to Joan Didion, I call it THE YEAR OF MAGICAL PAINTING.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

The Commentariat Weighs In...

A couple of comments caught my eye.

First, from Davidlefool, which is, I suppose, French for David the Fool (Happy Bastille Day, David--although I think you are from England. I always enjoy your comments), reads:

Hmm if you did one of Bush I think people would have something to say. Dodd and Volker are not quite in the public consciousness like most of the other portrait choices.

Were it me, I'd have added a couple more Ms on 'Hmm' and put a comma after it.So now it's you with the commas? You are always giving me shit about them.You, apparently, are wearing off on me.Bad news for you, I guess.Totally. I'm going to stop being the Greek Chorus and become the Fool.Both worthy theatrical devices.I suppose.As far as I'm concerned, I love comments. If people want to bean them out without an in-depth reflection on the number of Ms in Hmmmm, then I say more power to you.Them.Yes, them.

Back to the Commentariat: This from Mikhail Shoemaker (which, unlike Davidlefool, has to be a pseudonym):

In Rooshia it is cold. In Rooshia we win all Grand Pree. Ferrari will win until the end of the Motherland! Comrade Putin ensures Ferrari victori. The English will not prevail over Mikhail. The KGB ensures it is so.

The Formula One posts always bring out the crazies. But, that said, I would offer the following annotation on my Chris Dodd painting as an interesting coincidence:

Do you see the one in red? Says "Michael Schumacher -> Mercedes"? Isn't that odd. Written by an 18-year old German girl. Made me smile. Still does.

Getting back to Comrade Putin, for a moment--there is much talk about a Russian F1 race. Great idea, in my opinion. They could either put it near Moscow or St. Petersburg (if that's what they call it these days; it was Leningrad when I spent the Christmas of 1970 there), or they could follow the United States model and locate the damned thing somewhere on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains.

Brief informational aside: The newly resuscitated US Grand Prix will be spending the next ten years in no less a place than Austin, Texas. How convenient.

Anyway, back to the matters at hand, I'm abandoning my Volker painting (at least for now) and painting Obama for release as TheFirstPaintingoftheNewSeason! I also like the idea of painting Bush and Cheney (I like how Chris Matthews, a windbag of the first magnitude, insists on pronouncing it Cheeeny). One of Bush; one of Cheney; both titled Bush/Cheney.